| There is a rapid increase in the number of social network platforms(SNPs),as well as their use by individuals and organizations in recent times.The ubiquity and the multiple attributes of SNPs make them important and strategic to both the society(social)and organizations(business sustainability).The influence of SNPs is increasingly penetrating different sectors including marketing(e.g.advertisement),economic(e.g.online shopping),education(e.g.E-learning),and entertainment(e.g.Instagram and YouTube).Online firms are increasingly using SNPs to track customer sentiment thereby making SNPs an essential tool in enhancing business value and ensuring the sustainability of businesses.To harness the multiple advantages of SNPs,developers must achieve long-term patronage of users.A recent report of China Internet Network Information Center(CNNIC)showed that 31.3%of SNPs users discontinue use after registration indicating that users'antecedents for adoption may change over time.Thus,user attraction and retention remain a serious concern for SNPs developers and managers in achieving the sustainability of their platforms and increase their monetary value as well.Due to the significance of social media to individuals and businesses,scholars from different fields have applied different theories in investigating social media users' behaviour concerning the adoption and usage and post-adoption behaviour from different perspectives.Many of these studies have investigated the impact of gratifications on user-behaviour and reported the significant influence of several gratifications in predicting user-behaviour in SNPs.Though the findings of prior studies contributed significantly to the body of knowledge on Social media users'behaviour,there is lack of knowledge of the relationship between gratifications user psychological response and how the latter predicts user behavioural intention.Thus,this research work focused on understanding the impact of gratifications on users' psychological response and how these psychological response factors influence the behavioural intention of SNP users.Based on vast literature review on the influence of gratifications on SNPs user behaviour from uses and gratification perspective,paucity of information on the impact of gratifications on users' psychological response and how the latter influence user behavioural intention was observed.Accordingly,this study identified three aspects that need further study.They are;the impact of gratification on users' satisfaction and emotional attachment and how these two factors influence continuance use intention,the impact of gratifications on user-pleasure and sense of belonging,and,the impact of gratifications on user-compatibility and how the later influences user-perceived compatibility.Main contents of the research are as follows.First,based on the existing theories namely theory of uses and gratifications(U&G)theory,stimulus-organism-response theory(S-O-R)and belonging theory,a theoretical framework was developed to investigate user psychological responses to the gratifications derived from the use of SNPs as well as to study the extent to which user behavioural intention such continuance intention and user commitment are affected by these psychological responses.The conceptual framework incorporated three groups of gratifications namely;hedonic gratification(entertaining value),social gratification(social value,social participation)and utilitarian gratification(information consumption,utilitarian value,content participation).The psychological response included users'satisfaction,users‘emotional attachment,user perceived-compatibility,sense of belonging.Social influence was included in the model to investigate the role of users'social environment.Continuous use intention was included in the model as well to examine how it is influenced by the psychological responses to gratifications.Second,the impact of gratifications on users' satisfaction and emotional attachment and the role of the latter factors in predicting continuance use intention were investigated.In this study,the U&G theory was integrated with the S-O-R theory to provide a theoretical foundation for the study.The data obtained from a survey of 252 Weibo users were used to test the model.The results showed that hedonic gratification(entertainment value),social gratification(social participation),and utilitarian gratification(content participation)have a positive and significant effect on users' satisfaction.Social participation and content participation were found to be significantly and positively related to emotional attachment.Social gratification(social participation)was found to be the most important factor influencing both users'satisfaction and emotional attachment.Furthermore,the study revealed that user satisfaction and emotional responses are significant predictors users'continuance intention.Theoretical and practical implications of these results were also discussed.Third,the impact of gratifications on user-pleasure and user-sense of belonging to a SNP was investigated.Data from 252 users of Weibo was used to test the proposed model.Results showed that entertaining value,social participation and information consumption have a positive and significant impact user-pleasure.Furthermore,social value,information consumption and pleasure militate the formation of user-sense of belonging to a SNP.The highlighted novel and relevant insights on these important aspects of SNPs usage behaviour has advanced and broaden knowledge on the matter,thus,making valuable contributions to social media literature.Noteworthy insights from the study were presented and discussed.Fourth,the impact of gratifications and social influence on user-perceived compatibility and subsequently the effect of social and user-perceived compatibility on user-commitment were investigated.Data from an online survey of 252 Weibo users were used to test the proposed model.The result revealed that social participation and entertaining value are significant predictors of user-perceived compatibility with entertaining value being the most important determinant.The results also revealed that social influence and user-perceived compatibility have a positive and significant effect on user-commitment.Theoretical and practical implications of these results were also discussed.Overall,this research work contributed to the body of scientific knowledge concerning SNPs user-behaviour by providing insights on the role of gratifications on users'psychological response and expanding knowledge on the influence of user psychological response on continuance use intention and user-commitment.The findings of this study provide scholars,SNPs developers and managers with novel and relevant insights on how to achieve attractive and successful SNP.Also,these findings will profit business or organisations that use these platforms to create and maintain customer relationship and can also help health social network site developers and managers in achieving the sustainability of their platforms. |
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